Rotating shear for cropping high-speed rolled stock



Jan. 27, 1970 M. PORAN ROTATING SHEAR FOR GROPPING HIGH-SPEED ROLLED STOCK 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 8, 1968 M. PORAN Jan. 27, 1970 ROTATING SHEAR FOR CROPPING HIGH-SPEED ROLLED STOCK 3 Sheets$heet 5 Filed Jan. 8, 1968 m. mu

United States Patent 3,491,640 ROTATING SHEAR FOR CROPPING HIGH-SPEED ROLLED STOCK Michael Poran, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, assignor to Schloemann Aktiengesellschaft, Dusseldorf, Germany, a company of Germany Filed Jan. 8, 1968, Ser. No. 696,335 Claims priority, application Germany, Jan. 27, 1967, Sch 40,134 Int. Cl. B26d 1/44 US. Cl. 83-306 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A rotating shear for cropping rolled stock, particularly wire, moving at a high speed, preceded by a switching member for rocking the rolled stock towards and away from the cropping point, comprising two rings of the same size which are secured side by side upon two shafts revolving at the same speed, with circular cutting edges facing one another and converging at an acute angle to the distance apart required at the cropping point for severing the rolled stock, the switching member and the cutting edges being adjusted relatively to one another in such a way that the exit aperture of the switching member is directed, in one end position, into the space left free for the passage of the rolled stock between the cutting rings, and, in the other end position, after passing through the cutting point, is directed tangentially to the cutting rings.

This invention relates to a rotating shear for cropping rolled stock moving at a high speed, particularly wire, which is preceded by a switching member for swinging the stock into the cutting region or cutting point.

In the cropping of high-speed wire before its entry into the finishing train of the rolling mill, or even during the severing of the leading and trailing end pieces of the wire that are not within the permissible limits after leaving the finishing mill train, there is first of all a difficulty in the quick and reliable deflecting of the crop end out of the feeding direction, and secondly in the reliable guidance of the fresh tip of the wire to the reel.

For overcoming these difiiculties, so-called disc shears are employed, in which two shearing discs are arranged one above the other, rotating at a speed adapted to the rolling speed, and secured upon driving shafts operatively connected with one another, these shearing discs being adjusted at an acute angle to the direction of advance of the wire. For cropping, the wire is swung, by means of a guiding tube constructed as a switching member, rocked through the cutting range of the disc shear, so that after the cut has been effected, the fresh wire tip formed thereby is laterally deflected by the shear discs, whilst the front crop end of the wire is advanced in the direction of feed.

It has however already been found, at rolling speeds of 15 metres per second and upwards, that upon the lateral deflection of the fresh wire tip, such a large accelerating force occurs that the catching of the laterally centrifuged wire tip presents great difficulties, and that notwithstanding precise adjustment of the reception guide to the next wire tip on the disc shear, disturbances are constantly occurring. At rolling speeds of more than 22 metres per second, the lateral deflecting effect, and the susceptibility of the shear to trouble occasioned thereby, become so great, that for these rolling speeds disc shears can no longer be employed. In addition to this, the shear, for the purpose of reducing the lateral component of the acceleration, has to be adjusted at as acute an angle as possible to the direction of motion of the wire, and the wire is thereby sharpened to such a point that the sharp tip of the wire is liable to catch, or even to cool down too quickly, and to cause disturbances upon entering the next roll stand.

Starting from this state of the art, this invention has attacked the problem of providing a rotating shear for cropping high-speed rolled stock preceded by a rotary switching member, wherein, after the cut has been effected, the crop end and the succeeding wire are advanced in different directions, without disturbing one another, and furthermore, the succeeding wire tip is reliably further advanced in the direction of feed, independently of the speed of rolling, and without any lateral deflecting forces at the moment of severing. Furthermore, the shear is to be suitable not only for insertion before the finishing train but also for insertion before the reel. In the former case, as compared with known disc shears, this involves the adjustability of the shear to the cutting angle that is most advantageous for the further rolling of the wire. When the shear is being used before a reel, as a front and rear cropping shear, with respect to the rolling speeds generally aimed at, it also involves an undisturbed working of the shear and of the rolled-wire guidance even at rolling speeds of 40 metres per second and more.

For the solution of the problem set forth, this invention therefore provides a rotating shear preceded by a switching member for rocking the rolled stock into the cutting range, wherein two rings of the same size, which are secured side by side to driving shafts running at the same speed, with their adjacent end faces constructed as cutting edges, converging at an acute angle to the distance apart requisite for severing the rolled stock, and adjusted to the switching member in such a way that the outlet aperture of the switching member, in one end position, is directed into the space left free for the passage of the rolled stock between the cuting rings, and in the other end position, after passing through the cutting range, is adjusted tangentially to the cutting rings and in the direction of revolution thereof.

The shear according to the invention, as compared with known disc shears, has the advantage that at the moment of severing the crop end, an accelerating force in the direction of advance of the wire acts upon the next wire tip, and ensures the desired reliable guidance of the wire tip. The accelerating force is produced by the fact that the rolled stock, as the switching member swings inwards, engages in the cutting range of the shear fixed by the gripping angle, at first with a speed component adapted to the rolling-stock speed, and then, with steady growth of the speed component in the direction of conveyance, is drawn through the cutting range right up to the speed of revolution. The accelerating component transverse to the direction of feed occurring at the moment of engagement of the wire has no influence upon the succeeding wire tip, since, up to the complete shearing of the wire, its value falls to zero.

By the steadily increasing difference between the speed of the rolled stock and the component of the speed, the result is furthermore obtained that the wire, once engaged, and notched at a definite angle, upon the further cutting, oppositely to the tendency starting from the angle of indentation for the raising of the wire, is pulled straight, and the crop end is already torn ofi at the position of the indentation before the complete shearing. A form of the tip of the wire advantageous for the further rolling of the wire is thereby produced, the tip being so blunt that it does not cool down too quickly, and that it can also be readily introduced into the next roll pass.

The guidance of the fresh wire tip and of the succeeding length of wire can be still further improved by arranging the cutting rings substantially convergently upwards, so that the wire, after the termination of the cut, runs over one of the two cutting-ring peripheries and is driven by them.

To enable the angle of indentation and the gripping angle to be adjusted to the particular rolling-stock diameter, the cutting rings, according to a further feature of the invention, are so arranged as to be adjustable rela= tively to one another whilst maintaining the distance between the cutting edges at the narrowest point of the cutting region.

The advantage of the adjustability of the cutting edges, and of the possibility, associated therewith, of altering the gripping angle, consists in the fact that even with relatively thick rolled stock a good form of tip can be attained between the cutting edges by increasing the angle of incidence. Since relatively thick rolled stock has a greater internal rigidity than thinner rolled stock, and consequently erects itself sooner with a blunter angle of indentation, because it can yield to the pull produced by the increasing speed component by a movement relative to the rotating cutting edges, the bending round of the succeeding wire tip is advantageously counteracted by the fact that the cutting range is reduced by increasing the angle of incidence, and the wire is engaged at a more acute angle of indentation.

In a further development of the invention the cutting rings are made rockable relatively to one another, so as to increase the narrowest cutting-edge distance up to a value at least greater than the maximum rolled-stock diameter. This has the advantage that when employing the shear before the reel, the cutting rings, after the severing of the unusable front end, are rocked asunder, and, after the lowering of the wire running through, down to below the cutting region, can be rocked together again, so that the shear, after the wire has been brought into the exit position requisite for cutting, can still be employed for severing the unusable rear end.

Owing to this possibility of rocking the rings asunder, the accessibility of the cutting rings, at the assembling and dismantling thereof, is facilitated.

One embodiment of the shear according to the invention is illustrated by way of example in the accommpanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 shows a view, partly in section, of a shear for two-line operation, as seen in the direction of feed of the wire;

FIGURE 2 is a side view of half the shear, partly in section through the switching member and the wireguide;

FIGURE 3 is a diagrammatic representation of the shear with the switching member rocked upwards, at the moment of the termination of the severing of the rolled stock; and

FIGURE 4 is a diagrammatic representation of the shear for two-line operation with different possibilities of adjustment of the shear.

The shear illustrated in FIGURE 1 consists of casings 1 and 2, in which driving shafts 3 and 4 are rotatably journalled. These are connected, by way of toothed wheels 5 and 6, with shafts 7 and 8, the shaft 7 being driven by the shaft 8 through a coupling 9. Upon the shaft 8, journalled in the casing 1, is furthermore secured a bevel wheel 10, which meshes with a bevel wheel 11 (see FIGURE 2) driven by a motor 12. The driving shafts 4 and 3 may of course just as well be directly driven by two motors, thus saving the toothed wheels 5 and 6, and 11, as well as the shafts 7 and 8 and the articulated-joint coupling 9. The shear shown in FIGURE 1 is suitable for the simultaneous cutting of two lines running parallel to one another.

Upon the adjacent ends of the driving shafts 3 and 4, the axes of which intersect one another at obtuse angle, two rings 14, equal in size, are secured by means of discs 13, the adjacent end faces of these rings being constructed as cutting edges. Correspondingly to the obtuse angle between the axes of the driving shafts 3 and 4,

the cutting edges of the rings 14 are arranged in planes at an acute angle to one another, in such a way that the cutting edges approach one another in the upper region, right to the distance requisite for the severing of the rolled stock.

As will be seen from FIGURE 2, the shear is preceded by a switching member 15 for swinging the rolled stock into the cutting range. The exit aperture 16 from the switching member 15 guides the arriving wire tip, in the end position shown, into a space, left free for the passage of the rolled stock, between the cutting rings 14. When the switching member 15, which is mounted fast upon a rotatably journalled shaft 17, is rocked upwards by means of a power appliance 18 which acts upon a lever 33 rigidly connected with the shaft 17, the wire passes, as illustrated in FIGURE 3, into the cutting range of the shear, fixed by the angle of engagement which differs in magnitude according to the diameter of the rolled stock and the aperture an le between the cutting edges, and reaches from the position of the first indentation 19 to the position of complete shearing 20. The crop end, severed at 20, is rejected by the guiding plate 21 into scrap bucket, whilst the succeeding wire tip is impelled, by way of the periphery of one of the two cutting rings, into an outlet guide 22, which guides the wire to the roll stand or reel, not shown.

In the shear construction for single-line operation illustrated in FIGURE 4, the shear casings 1 and 2 are so secured as to be displaceable relatively to one another upon base plates 23, the base plates 23 being rockable about a common pivotal axis 24, and being supported upon the base-plate 27 by hinge-rods 25 and 26. In the common hinge point 28 of the joint rods 25 and 26 of each of the casings 1 and 2 engages the piston rod 29 of a working cylinder 30, the piston rod 29 also being additionally variable in its length by means of an adjusting member 31. By this arrangement of the shear the possibility is provided of adjusting the cutting rings 14 differently i relation to one another. Thus a change in the acute angle between the cutting rings, whilst maintaining the distance between the cutting edges at the narrowest point of the cutting range, is effected by uni' formly lowering the casings 1 and 2, at first by shorten' ing the length of the piston rods 29 by means of the ad' justing members 31, and then displacing the casings 1 and 2 so far relatively to one another over the baseplates 23 that the distance required between the cutting edges for severing the rolled stock is re-adjusted. Then the casings 1 and 2 are secured upon the base-plates 23 with the screws 32. This adjustability of the cutting edges relatively to one another serves to enable the gripping angle of the shear to be adjusted to the diameter of the rolled stock to be cropped, and thereby te construct the form of the succeeding wire tip as shown in FIG- URE 3.

With simultaneous use of the shear as a front and rear cropping shear before the reel, it is requisite, after carrying out the first cropping cut, to rock the cutting rings 14 so far apart that the rolled stock running into the reel can be lowered again to a depth below the cutting range. The tail-end crop is in this case effected by repeated raising of the switching member 15, in which case, however, the tail-end crop must be discharged above the outlet guide 22, as contrasted with the front crop, which is deflected into the scrap bucket below the outlet guide 22 by the guiding plate 21. The exchanging of the cutting rings 14 is likewise facilitated by the possibility of rocking the cutting rings asunder.

The constructional expenditure involved by the lowering of the stock-guide to a position below the cutting range, in the additional control and movement of the switching member beyond the shear, and the deflecting, connected therewith, of the wire from its direction of advance, can be obviated by providing two shears of the construction according to the invention in series, the

front shear, in the direction of advance, preferably being constructed with upwardly converging cutting rings, whilst the cutting rings of the rear shear are so arranged as to converge downwards, with their cutting range so far below the cutting range of the front shear that the rolled wire, after the front crop, is guided in a straight line through the cutting rings of the shear located at the rear. In the cropping of the rear end of the rolled wire, a second switching member mounted before the rear shear is lowered, and the succeeding rear crop end is likewise deflected downwards to the scrap bucket.

I claim:

1. A rotating shear for cropping rolled stock moving at a high speed, comprising: a switching member for rocking the rolled stock towards and away from the cropping point, two driving shafts revolving at the same speed, two rings of the same size secured side by side one on each of the said shafts, and circular cutting edges facing one another on the said rings and converging at an acute angle towards the cropping point, where their distance apart is the distance required for severing the rolled stock, the switching member being rockable through such an angle that in one extreme position it directs the rolled stock into the wider part of the space between the cutting rings, whereas in the other extreme position it directs the rolled stock through the cutting point and then tangentially to the cutting rings.

2. A rotating shear as claimed in claim 1, the direction of convergence of the cutting edges towards the cropping point being upwards.

3. A rotating shear as claimed in claim 1, the cutting rings being adjustable relatively to one another, whilst maintaining the distance between them at the cropping point unchanged.

4. A rotating shear as claimed in claim 1, the cutting rings being rockable relatively to one another through a sufficient angle to increase their distance apart at the cropping point to a distance at least exceeding the diameter of the rolled stock to be cropped.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,690,220 9/1954 Bedson 83-306 2,852,075 9/1958 Wilson 83307 2,861,634 11/1958 Wilson 83-306 3,244,050 4/1966 Pym 83418 WILLIAM S. LAWSON, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 83-418, 497 

